Crewman dumps 10,000 gallons of oily ship sludge off coast of New Orleans, feds say
A foreign ship’s chief engineer is going to prison after illegally dumping around 10,000 gallons of oily sludge off the coast of Louisiana — then lying to the U.S. Coast Guard about it, federal prosecutors say.
When an issue caused the ship’s engine room to flood with the waste, Kirill Kompaniets, a Russian citizen, made the call to release the oil-contaminated liquid into the sea within 12 miles of New Orleans, court documents state.
Kompaniets tried hiding the incident from the Coast Guard and ordered his fellow crewmates to stay silent and delete any evidence on their phones, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
A judge sentenced Kompaniets to one year and one day in federal prison on Aug. 30 on accusations of discharging the oily waste and obstructing justice, a news release says.
“The intentional pollution of U.S. waters and the deliberate cover-up are serious criminal offenses that will not be tolerated,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim said in a statement.
McClatchy News contacted Kompaniets’ attorney for comment on Sept. 1 and is awaiting a response.
Between March 13, 2021, through March 14 of that same year, Kompaniets “deliberately disregarded procedures designed to protect the environment from contaminants,” U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans for the Eastern District of Louisiana said in a statement.
While the M/V Gannett Bulker ship — a Marshall Islands bulk carrier vessel responsible for transporting cargo in and out of the U.S. — was anchored near New Orleans, a leak containing a mixture of oily ship waste began flooding the engine room, court documents state.
By the time the leak was controlled, Kompaniets and another crewmember began releasing it into the ocean, prosecutors say.
“The ship’s required pollution prevention devices — an oily-water separator and oil content monitor — were not used, and the discharge was not recorded in the Oil Record Book, a required ship log,” the release says.
A crewmate tipped off the Coast Guard about the illegal waste through social media, according to the attorney’s office. As a result, Kompaniets tried retaliating against this crewmember and discrediting them by saying they were poorly performing on the ship.
Kompaniets also made false statements in an attempt to conceal from the Coast Guard that the ship’s engine room flooded before the waste was dumped overboard, prosecutors say.
In an effort to obstruct justice further, Kompaniets destroyed computer records on the ship during the time the oily waste was released, among other actions, according to the release.
“Both our office and our federal partners are committed to holding accountable all parties whose criminality jeopardizes our environment and places the public and the ecosystem at risk,” Evans said.
Kompaniets must pay a $5,000 fine as part of his sentencing, prosecutors say. He will be supervised for six months following his release from prison.
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